But O'Neill is adamant the club he supported as a boy were never in any real danger of going down as he would have been able to mastermind their way to safety.

O'Neill said: "I was disappointed, of course, at Sunderland, disappointed not to have completed the season.

"I think, really, if I look at it, although nothing is certain in football, that given 20 years of reasonable success in the game, I would have accumulated the five points necessary from the last seven games to have stayed up.

"So yes, I was disappointed because it was a club that I grew up supporting as a boy - not that that makes a great deal of difference in this managerial game.

"But for the opportunity not to be afforded to us to see the job through - I'm quite sure if that had been the case, that I may well have been managing the team right now."